Food Industry Archive

JBS expands beef recall — JBS Swift Beef is recalling an additional 380,000 pounds of ground beef due to concerns about E. coli contamination. Originally the company had only recalled 41,000 pounds. The tainted beef carries the highest risk level, meaning the product could potentially cause “serious, adverse health consequences or death.” The timing — right before 4th of...

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Here we go again. People get sick, the company whose product is responsible gets criticized for its food safety protocols, and the company defends itself by saying everything it did is entirely lawful. Not only is it lawful, in fact, but it “isn’t out of line with the rest of the food industry.” Is that supposed to make us feel better? This time around, it’s Nestle Toll...

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Bisphenol A (BPA) — a chemical used in plastic bottles and other containers, including baby bottles, water bottles and food cans — has always been controversial. Many health advocates remained skeptical despite Food and Drug Administration statements about the lack of evidence that BPA is unsafe for human health. But new research suggests both that the chemical definitely does leach...

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Monsanto and Dole to improve vegetables — Dole Fresh Vegetables Inc. is collaborating with Monsanto to breed tastier, more attractive and more nutritious versions of broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce and spinach. Unlike Monsanto corn and soy, however, these products will not be genetically modified, but merely bred through natural methods. The two companies have agreed to work together on...

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Remember Setton Pistachio? The Terra Bella Inc. company that, back in March, had a few little issues with salmonella contamination and had to recall a huge chunk of its products? Fortunately, the company “survived a food company’s worst nightmare,” and Chief Operating Officer Mia Cohen tells you how in an interview published yesterday on FoodProcessing.com. Oops. Bad timing....

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Wow. I just looked through a press release with the heading “Chicago Making Progress Shrinking Vast ‘Food Desert.’” The city has reduced the size of its food deserts by 1.4 square miles, affecting 24,000 people. That seems like a pretty tiny improvement, considering that there are still 600,000 people in Chicago without easy access to healthy foods. Food deserts —...

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Pizza Hut has been experimenting with name variations for a while now, re-branding some locations as “Pasta Hut” and labeling some pizza boxes and other materials with the name “The Hut.” But now, an explosion of negative publicity has prompted the company to issue the following statement: “Pizza Hut is not changing its name. We are proud of our name and heritage...

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Nestle recalls Toll House cookie dough products — Several dozen cases of E. coli have been linked to Toll House refrigerated cookie dough products, and Nestle today issued a voluntarily recall. The company says the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control are investigating the issue. About 300,000 cases of different products are affected. [Source: AP] ConAgra to...

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I’m kind of surprised that anyone would be shocked by the documentary Food, Inc. Yes, a tiny number of companies controls a vast majority of the food chain. Yes, most animals are raised in filthy, cramped conditions and have been so successfully bred for size that they have evolved into mutant creatures that couldn’t survive on their own if they weren’t slaughtered for food....

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Barista-in-Chief Howard Schultz has long complained about how Starbucks gave up the “theater” and romance of the coffee house experience as it expanded globally. Now the company is trying to get some of that back, even as it shuts the door on 600 stores, which is 500 more than it had planned to close this year. According to internal memos obtained by the Wall Street Journal,...

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